18:00
13.5.2014
Sober assessment from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who said in Warsaw that "[i]n the next few days or weeks, the fate of the Ukrainian state will be decided," according to AFP. He urged the EU to "concentrate on the kind of help that will allow Ukraine to hold elections on May 25," adding: "Today, I would mobilise the entire European Union and NATO around the real risk or threat that the Ukrainian state could fall, or at least be subject to a very painful split."
19:25
13.5.2014
19:32
13.5.2014
19:33
13.5.2014
That concludes our live-blogging for May 13, barring major developments. Follow our continuing coverage of events in Ukraine and elsewhere in our region here.
05:53
14.5.2014
Good morning. We'll start our live blog today by pointing you in the direction of an interesting op-ed piece in "The Moscow Times" by political analyst Georgy Bovt, who has been discussing the prospect of a new Iron Curtain betwen Russia and the West. He makes the case that this division already exists in most Russians' heads:
Read the entire article here.
About 80 percent of Russians have never left the Commonwealth of Independent States and have no plans to do so. Of those who have visited the West, many were disappointed to learn that it was not the "heaven on Earth" they had expected. Life there can be difficult and stressful, and the laws are unfamiliar. Many Russians find themselves asking, "Why fill your head with strange rules and regulations and struggle to learn a foreign language?" Only about 5 percent of Russians speak a foreign language at conversational level. The authorities have already prohibited the siloviki from traveling abroad on the far-fetched pretext that 150 different countries might arrest them and extradite them to the U.S. If you add the families members of those siloviki, this means that about 5 million Russians are essentially banned from traveling abroad.
The West will have little luck frightening Russians with the prospect of a new Iron Curtain because Russians themselves already built one long ago — in their minds.
The West will have little luck frightening Russians with the prospect of a new Iron Curtain because Russians themselves already built one long ago — in their minds.
Read the entire article here.
06:21
14.5.2014
Peace talks in Kiev, but pro-Russian separatists aren't at the table: http://t.co/JfwVnN4jRT
— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) May 14, 2014
06:26
14.5.2014
#Ukraine army helicopters in #Kramatorsk yesterday emblazoned with #UN logo https://t.co/niAKie5knL
— Lizzie Phelan (@LizziePhelan) May 14, 2014
07:12
14.5.2014
Ukraine's rising protest movement was based on socioeconomic demands, in both west & east http://t.co/0mCLboq6ML pic.twitter.com/b8D28kJV2x
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) May 14, 2014
07:55
14.5.2014
On Russian TV, Duma Speaker says "there's still a chance to de-escalate crisis through dialogue of all political forces in Ukraine"
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) May 14, 2014
09:09
14.5.2014
This story by RFE/RL's Luke Johnson about Russia's threat to close GPS stations on its territory is peripherally related to the Ukraine crisis, but it's interesting nonetheless. Johnso was speaking to Bradford Parkinson, professor emeritus of aeronautics at Stanford University:
Read the entire article here.
Parkinson, who led the project to create the GPS system in the 1970s, said closing the Russian stations could have an effect only in terms of fine levels of accuracy, "when you are trying to get accuracies ranging down to perhaps centimeters or better," he said. "And so, if he were to indeed shut such differential stations down, the people he's going to be harming are his own people. The GPS itself does not rely on any reference stations within Russian territory.
"That's like a guy saying to the rest of the town, I'm going to really ruin you -- I'm going to turn off my own water," Parkinson joked. "'Have at it. Let me know how it turns out.'"
"That's like a guy saying to the rest of the town, I'm going to really ruin you -- I'm going to turn off my own water," Parkinson joked. "'Have at it. Let me know how it turns out.'"
Read the entire article here.